Flash Flood — Scott, Illinois

2021-06-25 to 2021-06-26 · near Neelys, Scott, Illinois

Event narrative

Several roads were flooded south of Winchester and a van was submerged in high water on Route 67 west of Manchester.

Wider weather episode

A series of disturbances tracking along a nearly stationary frontal boundary resulted in two periods of heavy rainfall across parts of central Illinois on June 25th and June 26th. The hardest hit areas were across southern McLean County into far northern Logan County, as well as across southern portions of Scott and Morgan counties. The first wave of heavy rain began around 7pm CDT June 25th and persisted until around 11pm that evening before tapering off. Rainfall amounts across southern McLean County ranged from 4 to 7 inches in 4 hours, with the heaviest rain extending from near the town of McLean through Bloomington-Normal southeastward toward LeRoy. The second wave of heavy rain occurred during the afternoon of June 26th when additional amounts of 2 to 4 inches fell across the same areas of southern McLean County that had been impacted the previous evening. Storm total rainfall between 6pm CDT June 25th and 6pm CDT June 26th ranged from 6 to 11 inches across southern McLean County, with a maximum amount of 10.71 inches measured 1.5 miles east-southeast of Bloomington...which represented a 1,000-year rainfall (0.1 percent chance of occurring in any given year). Locations from Funks Grove through Shirley to southern and eastern parts of Bloomington experienced a 500-year rainfall (0.2 percent chance of occurring in any given year). Due to the tremendous amount of rainfall, significant flash flooding occurred across central and southern McLean County into far northern Logan County, including the city of Bloomington. Numerous roads were closed due to high water, several water rescues needed to be performed due to stranded motorists, part of the I-55 shoulder collapsed near Kickapoo Creek, and Kickapoo Creek reached record levels and flooded several homes in Lawndale in far northern Logan County.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (39.6417, -90.5219)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 962036. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.